Heavy equipment company starts cleanup in St. Peters

POSTED: 06/21/13 12:31 PM

Vromi-Minister Maurice Lake (second from right) poses for a picture together with heavy equipment operator Edwin Hodge and his wife Sharon to his left and social activist Koto Wilson to his right and with Topsic workers. Photo Today / Hilbert Haar

St. Maarten – Vromi-Minister Maurice Lake went into the district of St. Peters yesterday to kick off the hurricane cleanup that will be executed by Edwin Hodge’s company Topsic Heavy Equipment Services. The work starts at the Genip Road, where representatives of the ministry and the company gathered yesterday afternoon for a brief introduction of the project to the media.

“This is a special day,” the minister said in his first public appearance since he became a member of the Wescot-Williams III cabinet. “This is not a one-time contract for cleaning trenches only. It will continue. It is important to go back to basics and to go into all the districts in St. Maarten to create job for young people.”

Claudius Buncamper, head of infrastructure management at Lake’s ministry, said that Hodge had a 2-year contract, something that will give him more leeway for investments in new equipment. “Today they will start with cleaning trenches, but there are also the streets, and the garbage,” Buncamper said. “They will become through their work a sort of community police. I did not get carte blanche from the minister, but we have a lot of leeway to work with Mr. Hodge.”

The next districts the ministry will tackle are Dutch Quarter, Belvedere, Sucker Garden and Pointe Blanche, typical districts that, unlike those over the hill, have to deal with a lot of run-off water.